11/17/2015

CUBA SEEKS ANOTHER $8.2BILLION CUBAN INVESTMENTS

Havana Cuba- The Cuban government is once again asking Investors for over $8.2 billion in foreign investment in 326 pre-approved projects ranging from the production of Cuban rum to an entirely new venture creating high definition, pay-per-view television.

The projects form part of Cuba's attempt to bring in another $2 billion in foreign direct investment a year. The Cuban Investment Minister reported Cuba has signed 36 deals since a new foreign investment law was approved last year, including six at the special development zone around the port of Mariel, but did not say how much they were worth.

While most of the newly signed projects are joint ventures with the Cuban state, an unspecified number were financed with 100 percent foreign capital, Malmierca also promoted Communist Cuba's small but growing private sector in an effort to show the country was modernizing.

"We realize, I repeat, that the private sector, cooperatives, and other forms of property and management, have a space within our future development model," The portfolio includes new opportunities in healthcare, tourism, transportation, construction, agriculture and renewable energy.

Also added to the list were two projects to make and distribute rum, one of Cuba's signature products.

One is a $27 million joint venture for the obscure Perla del Norte brand for export and national consumption. The other is a similar $44 million joint venture for the more common Cuban brand.

There's also a $6 million project for installing high-definition paid television channels on the national broadcaster.

Five high-end Cuban Travel hotels and Cuban Beach villa construction joint ventures and 59 lodging management contracts are available, as well as the construction or expansion of seven marinas.

Cuba once relied heavily on trade with the Soviet bloc, which later collapsed. Even though Cuba trades with 75 countries and trade has tripled in the last decade, it relies heavily on socialist ally Venezuela, which is struggling with an economic crisis. http://Calls2Cuba.com